Senior Reporter

THE traditional season of peace and goodwill has not extended to the scandal-plagued Calabria Community Club. Hostilities between feuding members of Sydney's Italian community erupted into an all-in brawl complete with the hurling of chairs at last week's annual meeting, in which a former drug kingpin was elected to the board of the controversial club.

The future of the dilapidated one-room club is at present the subject of a bitter legal battle in the Supreme Court of NSW. Fuelling the dispute is a potential $200 million rezoning proposal that has led to the value of the club's land in Restwell Street, Prairiewood, increasing tenfold.

The court has heard allegations of back-door deals, questionable loans and forged board minutes that allegedly enabled the club's chairman, Rocco Leonello, a former ministerial staffer to the Labor heavyweight Joe Tripodi, to wrest control of the club. The court has heard accusations that Mr Tripodi, who is not a member but who has been described as a "shadow director", was pulling the strings behind ''a crude attempt by a few greedy individuals to steal the assets from the club''.

Pat Carbone. Photo: Nick Moir

In 2011, two days before the Planning Department approved the rezoning of the club, Mr Leonello secretly negotiated a major funding deal with his and Mr Tripodi's associate, Tan Kien ''TK'' Ly, a Fairfield Labor councillor. Mr Ly received a cut of the deal, the court has heard.

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Mr Leonello's funding deal, which did not have board approval, has effectively delivered control of the redevelopment into the hands of Mr Ly's friends, little-known Vietnamese businessmen Huy Minh Tran and Cuong Tran. The court has heard that the Trans have no background in finance or development and their financing vehicle Panbic is a $2 company that has never filed an annual return.

Seeking to have the deal overturned and the club put into administration is the property developer Pat Carbone. Mr Leonello has denied under oath that he previously forged board minutes to have Mr Carbone thrown off as a director.

Mr Carbone, who has fallen out spectacularly with his former friends Mr Tripodi and Mr Leonello, is being backed by business figures Tony Labbozzetta and the furniture mogul Nick Scali.

Last Friday at 6pm about 60 members, evenly split between

Mr Leonello's and Mr Carbone's camps, turned up at the club to vote for 13 board positions.

Tensions between the warring sides increased when Mr Carbone queried holding the elections between Christmas and New Year. He also asked that the election be postponed until a decision is handed down in the current Supreme Court proceedings which will resume in February.

The situation was further inflamed when one of Mr Carbone's advisers, Peter Jones, a former friend of Mr Leonello and Mr Tripodi, took a seat in the rival camp and began heckling. According to those present one of Mr Leonello's supporters said to Mr Jones, ''You're not even Calabrian''.

When Mr Jones, who is not of Italian heritage, quipped ''I am Sicilian'', he was set upon by several of those sitting nearby. Mr Jones's shirt was ripped and he was punched several times in the back of the head and neck. Fairfield police are investigating Mr Jones's alleged assault.

The all-in brawl broke out just as the vote was about to be taken. Chairs were hurled and security guards rushed in to separate the antagonists.

Despite the melee, Mr Leonello told the meeting he had received legal advice that the vote should go ahead. The successful candidates were announced but the club has declined requests to provide the number of votes received by each candidate.

Mr Carbone was unsuccessful in his attempt to be reinstated to the board but three of his supporters were elected.

Among the successful candidates backing Mr Leonello were the club's accountant Filippo Occhiuto, Mr Occhiuto's father Carmine and uncle Pasquale. Mr Occhiuto also proposed another successful candidate - one time drug kingpin Antonio Rizzotto, 80. Mr Rizzotto, who did not attend the annual meeting, and his co-accused Antonio Calabria, 74, a Griffith farmer, were released from jail in 1999 after serving six years for organising a drug crop worth $8 million on an isolated property near Cobar in the state's far west.